1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates-generally to custom ordered furniture and the packaging of such furniture for shipment and storage. More particularly, the invention relates to fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble furniture which may be custom ordered by a consumer, packaged by the seller for shipment to the consumer by a parcel delivery service, and then assembled by the consumer from the packaged components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ready-to-assemble furniture is furniture which is packaged for shipment and storage in disassembled form, with assembly to be done by the consumer or end user. Examples of existing ready-to-assemble non-upholstered furniture include bookcases, television stands, and simple chairs and benches. Furthermore, mass merchandised ready-to-assemble furniture is expected to be rather less expensive to the consumer than comparable pre-assembled furniture or to have distinctive functional features generally not available with its pre-assembled counterpart.
The genre of ready-to-assemble furniture packaged for mass merchandising retail sale and home delivery has generally been limited to pieces of furniture which are utilitarian or hard-surfaced, and which are available in only limited colors or surface finishes. As such, prior ready-to-assemble furniture does not satisfy the need for primary pieces of fully upholstered furniture which may be custom ordered by the consumer, and either delivered to the household of the consumer by a parcel delivery service, or taken home by the consumer from a retail location.
What is needed is comfortable, fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble, and inexpensive furniture of high quality which may be packaged in a compact, easily storable and transportable way, for distribution by mass merchandising and home delivery channels and which can be custom ordered by the purchaser to accommodate a wide variety of consumer decorating tastes.
The present invention provides fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble furniture which may be custom ordered by a purchaser, shipped directly to the home of the purchaser by a parcel delivery service, and then easily and quickly assembled by the purchaser. The furniture includes a frame having a plurality of planar frame members which are interconnected by interlocking protrusions and cutout portions, as well as by threaded fasteners received in push-in connector elements which are held in recesses within the frame members. A first plurality of upholstery covers cover the frame and are attached to one another by hook and loop fasteners. A second plurality of upholstery covers cover padding elements to form cushions for the article of furniture. For shipment, the article of furniture may be packaged such that the frame members, connector elements, and fasteners are packaged in a first container, the padding elements are packaged in a second container; and the upholstery covers are packaged in a third container. Each one of the first, second, and third containers weigh about 70 pounds or less to allow them to be delivered directly to the home of a consumer by a parcel delivery service.
Further, the present invention uses reduced volume padding in a method of making a kit which provides high quality, ready-to-assemble upholstered furniture. The kit includes a lightweight, compact, easy to handle package or packages well-suited to the shipping, storage and display needs of the mass merchandising industry. The kit, when assembled, provides an article of comfortable, fully upholstered furniture which can match a variety of decors. Interchangeable, fitted decorative coverings are separately provided to cover the furniture and provide continued flexibility and variety in accommodating the consumer""s decorating tastes.
The lightweight, compact and maneuverable package or packages are advantageous because they can be efficiently stocked on the display or inventory shelves of mass merchandising retailers, and additionally, the packages meet the size and weight limitations of parcel delivery service to allow home delivery of the furniture.
Accommodating various consumer decorating tastes by having a variety of interchangeable, fitted upholstery covering fabrics for the furniture is another advantage associated with the present invention. The upholstery covers are custom selected by the consumer, and can be also sold separately alongside the package containing the article of furniture. Further, the upholstery covers may be returned separately from the other components if the customer desires a different covering. Also, individual pieces of the upholstered covering, if damaged or stained for example, may be selectively ordered by the consumer and shipped to the consumer for replacement.
The ease of transportation of the compact kits by merchants or carriers reduces shipping costs and/or labor. Further, the compact nature of the kits allows consumers the option of either receiving home delivery of the furniture by a parcel delivery service, or to easily take the furniture home from a retail location at the time of sale in their own vehicles, rather than requiring them to wait for much later delivery by the retailer.
Conventional, pre-assembled upholstered furniture can be generally classified as having high quality and high cost, or low quality and low cost. The present invention provides ready-to-assemble upholstered furniture of high quality and low cost. In addition, the above advantages enable the novel approach to the sale of fully upholstered furniture involving the custom ordering of furniture by a consumer over an internet website for quick home delivery by a parcel delivery service.
In one embodiment, an article of furniture is provided, including a frame having a plurality of planar frame members; one of said frame members including a recess; and a connector element disposed in the recess, the connector element adapted to receive a fastener for interconnecting the frame members.
In another embodiment, an article of furniture is provided including a frame having a plurality of planar frame members, the frame including a seat back panel and an arm panel; and an upholstery cover covering the frame, including a seat back cover slidably disposed over the seat back panel, and an arm cover slidably disposed over the arm panel.
In a further embodiment, a method of packaging a ready-to-assemble article of furniture is provided, including providing an unassembled frame including a plurality of planar frame members; packaging the frame members in a first container; providing a padding element adapted to form a cushion for the article of furniture; packaging the padding element in a second container; providing an upholstery cover adapted to attach to the frame; and packaging the upholstery cover in a third container.
A still further embodiment provides a method of assembling a ready-to-assemble article of furniture, including providing a disassembled frame including a plurality of planar frame members, the frame members including interlocking portions, recesses and apertures; a plurality of push-in connector elements; and a plurality of fasteners; pushing the connector elements in the recesses; connecting the interlocking portions of the frame members; and securing the frame members by inserting the fasteners through the apertures and into the connector elements.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method of packaging disassembled upholstered furniture by disposing individual frame members, reduced volume padding and the requisite fasteners into a kit which can be easily shipped, stored, displayed on retail shelves, and transported by the consumer. This embodiment contemplates a variety of fitted covers separately available alongside the kit containing the disassembled furniture.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides an article of upholstered furniture assembled from the components which are disposed in the above-described kit via the present invention method.